Catholic Voices National Speakers’ Training, London, Sept-Dec 2014

Applications are now open for the Fifth National Speakers Training, which is taking place in London between September and December 2014.

Catholic Voices, originally created for the 2010 papal visit to the UK, is now a major project present in more than a dozen countries worldwide. Its model, training ‘ordinary’ Catholics in our reframing techniques and media skills and giving them in-depth briefings on the neuralgic issues behind news stories concerning the Church, has created a whole new generation of confident speakers. It has also transformed the way Catholics are perceived in the media, winning the backing of bishops and broadcasters alike. The project has led to books, the Catholic Voices ‘Academy’, regular communications workshops and talks, and a widely-followed blog (www.cvcomment.org). Fired by the UK example, the project has also spread abroad, with CV groups trained by the coordinators in Spain, Mexico, Ireland, Poland, Lithuania, Chile, USA, Australia and Venezuela.

The heart of the project remains our ambition to create, each year, a growing number of trained Catholic Voices (CVs) in the UK who, together with the original team, make themselves available to comment on radio and television. In Autumn last year our fourth ‘National Speakers’ Training’ took place in Manchester and Shrewsbury over three weekends; the new team of 20 have joined the 23 CVs of 2010, 16 CVs of 2011 and 18 CVs of 2012 in making media appearances (many of which are recorded and uploaded to this website). Last year CVs appeared on almost 300 TV and radio programmes.

This year we are expanding our training to include skills in giving talks and presentations as well as workshops on how to put the Church’s case in social media. That means that the fifth National Speakers’ Training 2014 will have a new format, involving Saturdays and Thursday evenings in central London plus a residential weekend. The training is free, but we ask participants to pay for their travel and accommodation if they are able.

We welcome applications from any practising, committed Catholics who believe they may have a calling as a Catholic Voice and are available onall the dates which form part of the training and one of the interview dates.

Dates: Interviews will be in Central London on Thurs 19, Sat 21 and Mon 23 June. Training: Saturdays: 13 September, 1 November and studio training either 4 or 11 October. Thursday evenings: 18 September and 25 September, and two of the four Thursday evenings in November – 6, 13, 20 and 27. The residential weekend, lasting from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon, will be 12-14 December at Park Place in Hampshire.

If you would like to be considered for the CV National Speakers’ Training, please email info@catholicvoices.org.uk for an application form and further details. Deadline for applications is 30 April 2014. In the meantime, please direct any queries to the same email address.

[Source: Catholic Voices]